The Nexsan Assureon is a tamper-resistant system, purpose-built with multiple layers of safeguards to prevent, even with administrator-level access to the system and detailed understanding of its technology, any attempt at file deletion or modification. In the unlikely event that an information asset archived on Assureon ever becomes corrupted, the system, when using a redundant configuration, will automatically and transparently replace the asset from one of the redundant copies.
Key features
• Automatically checks integrity of archived files
• Immutability—archived files cannot be changed
• Self healing—ensures that all files are healthy and retrievable
• Fast access to archived files and metadata
• Non-erasable, non-rewritable functionality
- Storage Optimization – offload primary storage to free up space for active data and reduce the size, time and costs of monthly full backups
- Regulatory & Corporate Compliance – comply with governmental regulatory requirements including HIPPA, SOX and SEC-17. Enforce company data retention, privacy and protection policies
- Long-Term Archive – store managed data for days or decades with unsurpassed integrity and protection in an easy to administer system that resides on-premise, in the cloud, or both.
Integrity
- Fingerprints – Each time a file is saved, a unique fingerprint is generated using both an MD5 and SHA1 hash of its contents and metadata, so history and contents cannot be altered after the fact (WORM storage)
- Serial Numbers – Each file is assigned a serial number which is used to ensure no files are missing or inappropriately added
- Secure Time – Tampering with the system time clock is prevented by using a global, redundant, secure time source (Stratum Level I hardware time sources
- Two Copies – Each file and its fingerprint are stored twice in the Assureon.
- Data Verification – Files are continually verified against their fingerprints, repaired using their copies and safeguarded by RAID disk arrays for days or decades
Scalability and High Availability
- Remote Replication – Two active Assureon systems can continuously replicate to each other to protect against a site failure
- Failover/failback – Native active/active replication protects against site disasters with automatic read failover and manual write failover
- Performance & Capacity – Scale capacity up to multiple petabytes and add performance by using multiple Assureon archive storage systems together
- InfiniBand – Optional High Speed Assureon with InfiniBand connectivity provides blazingfast retrieval of data from the Assureon archive
Privacy
- Separation of Data – Assureon provides complete separation of data between departments or projects using logical and physical separation as well as separation through the use of multiple AES-256 encryption keys
- Encryption – Files can be AES-256 encrypted. Keys for a replicated Assureon are stored safely at 4 sites by the integrated key management system. A nominal annual key management subscription is required
- Authentication – Users are authenticated with Active Directory or digital certificates
- Audit Trails – Audit trails report on file access and denied access attempts
Regulatory and Corporate Compliance
- Government Regulations – Meet regulatory mandates (e.g., Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP), SOX, SEC-17, HIPAA, GLBA and PCI DSS)
- Data Retention – Easily create retention rules and associate them with unstructured data directories or file types
- Legal Hold – A legal hold can be easily placed on any set of files, overriding their original retention periods until the hold is removed
- One System – Data sets can be retained for a period of time that can be extended but not shortened. Other data sets can be assigned a flexible retention period that can be lengthened or shortened to accommodate both needs in the organization
- Data Deletion – Industry-leading single-pointdeletion deletes all copies by destroying the encryption key for the file and deleting all copies of the file. Optional DoD wipe of the drive is also available on a per-object granularity
Easy to Manage
- Automatic Archive – Assureon Windows Client moves files from Windows Servers to the Assureon and can leave the original file in place or optionally leave a shortcut behind
- NAS (NFS/CIFS) – Assureon Edge presents a CIFS/NFS NAS interface to users and applications and stores all files on Assureon. Both replicated and Clustered NAS configurations are available
- Fast, Easy Deployment – The Assureon Client can be installed on Windows Server 2003 or 2008 with no reboot required. Once the archiving policies are established, files and folders are archived, completely transparent to applications and users
- Global Management – Single pane-of-glass management of all local and remote Assureon
- Utmost Data Protection – Protecting data with Assureon has many advantages over traditional backups including WORM, single file deletion, greater reliability and availability, and near instantaneous restores to dramatically reduced RTO
- Authentication – Assureon uses Microsoft Active Directory for authentication in the enterprise and can preserve folderlevel NTFS permissions; it can also use certificates for authentication in Linux or Unix environments, standalone Windows servers or when it is used for a multi-tenancy cloudbased online archive
- Reports – Standard reports keep track of storage usage for bill back of cloud services customers or within an individual customer bill back for projects or departments
- Four levels of monitoring – Automated monitoring via system state thresholds, node events, Assureon Client and self-healing file integrity and availability audits
- Lights-out Management – Self-managing Assureon issues alerts when something needs attention
Easy to Use
- Non-disruptive– Users and applications do not need to change to work with Assureon. An application running on a Windows 2003 or 2008 server can have its data securely archived, freeing up primary storage while the application is in production
- Prior Versions – Prior versions of files are easily retrieved by administrators
- Assureon Explorer – A web-based GUI makes it easy to search the entire archive with role-based restrictions for instant access. Metadata search is included with all Assureon systems. Optional file content indexing and searching is available as an Assureon Content Index Search node for typical files such as office, textual PDF files, text files, html files, xml files, etc.
Efficient
- Free Primary Storage – Files moved to Assureon free up primary storage
- Reduce Backups – Archived folders can be removed from the backup stream, significantly reducing the size of full backups. The result is a very fast return on investment based on savings of labor, hardware, media and time
- Fast Restores – Hyper speed restores replace small shortcuts rather than the actual file contents to meet even the toughest Recovery Time Objectives (RTO)
- Power Savings – AutoMAID energy saving technology reduces power consumption by up to 60% while maintaining fast response
- Less Space Needed – Single-instance storage technology eliminates duplicate files, saving 20-60% on typical mid-sized organization’s Assureon capacity requirements
Cloud-Ready
- Multi-tenancy – Multi-tenancy features enable service providers to offer highly secure Archive-as-a-Service with logical, physical and encryption data separation
- Online Archive – An on-premise Assureon can replicate to a cloud-based Assureon powered archive service. Assureon supports one-to-one and manyto- one replication
To learn more – call and ask for Sunstar’s Archive Specialist at (800) 663-5523